Trump: Capital Gazette shooting 'horrific, horrible thing'

President Donald Trump pledged support for the families of the five people killed in the “horrific” Capital Gazette shooting on Thursday afternoon, saying journalists should not be attacked for doing their jobs.

“Journalists, like all Americans, should be free from the fear of being violently attacked while doing their job,” Trump said. “My government will not rest until we have done everything in our power to reduce violent crime and to protect innocent life.”

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The president made the comments at an event on Friday afternoon, his first public appearance since a gunman opened fire in the Annapolis, Maryland, newsroom.

The president frequently criticizes the media, calling unfavorable news stories “fake news” and referring to publications such as The New York Times as “phony.” But on Friday, he offered condolences to the victims of the shooting, which he called a “horrific, horrible thing.”

The suspect who opened fire on the Maryland newsroom on Thursday, Jarrod Ramos, was there to kill as many people as he could, police said during a news conference Friday morning. The shooting claimed the lives of five Capital Gazette employees and injured two others. Anne Arundel County Police chief Timothy Altomare said he is still grappling with a motive.

“The fellow was there to kill as many people as he could kill,” Altomare said. “This was a targeted attack. We can’t fathom why that person chose to do this.”

Victims of the shooting were Rob Hiaasen, Wendi Winters, Gerald Fischman, John McNamara and Rebecca Smith.

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Ramos was charged with five counts of first-degree murder Friday morning and is being held without bail, according to The Baltimore Sun. Ramos previously sued the Capital Gazette for defamation after the paper wrote about his history of harassment.

Two people injured in the shooting were treated and released from the hospital, police said. Rachel Pacella and Janet Cooley are both employees of the Capital Gazette.

The Capital Gazette website encompasses two local newspapers, The Capital and the Maryland Gazette, and is owned by the Baltimore Sun.

The suspect used a 12-gauge pump shotgun which was legally purchased about a year ago, Altomare said. Police also recovered explosive devices connected to the attack.

“What we found was more stuff to distract people and confuse people than it was to introduce casualties,” Altomare said.

Within two minutes of arriving on scene, police cornered the suspect, who was hiding, Altomore said. No shots were fired by law enforcement, who just last week completed an active-shooter training. One hundred-seventy people were evacuated from the building on Bestgate road.

Though police did identify Ramos via facial recognition software, Altomare dispelled a false rumor the suspect had mutilated his fingers to avoid identification. Fingerprint identification was delayed, however, for other reasons, he said. The chief said he believes the image software pulls from driver’s license and mugshot photos.

“We identified the suspect with help through other investigative techniques by using facial recognition technology from the Maryland image repository system,” Altomare said. “The information about the suspect’s fingerprints [is] absolutely untrue … There was no alterations to his fingerprints whatsoever.”

Ramos was known to the Capital Gazette after a lengthy defamation lawsuit. In an interview Friday on MSNBC, former Capital Gazette executive editor Tom Marquardt said Ramos had previously made a “physical threat” against him.

“Quite frankly, the threat against me was that he wished I would die,” Marquardt said. “I took a photo of Mr. Ramos, who I had never met, brought it to the front desk and I said, ‘Be on the lookout for this guy. If he comes in, dial 911.’ I made sure everybody on my staff knew that we had this complaint. So his face was familiar to all of us. And did we think anything would happen? No.”

The media group decided not to press charges against Ramos after he made threatening comments online in May 2013, Altomore said, though a detective had been involved.

“There was a fear that doing so would exasperate an already flammable situation,” Altomare said. “The investigator involved is retired ... Every day we talk to somebody who decides they don't want to press charges in Maryland.”

Next steps in the investigation include “forensic reconstruction” on “digital stuff,” Altomare said. Three hundred law enforcement officers, including members of the FBI and Secret Service, responded to the shooting.

The police chief said he does not believe the county is danger, and that it is clear there was only one suspect in the shooting. He also refused to mention the suspect by name.

“I will not say his name today. I refuse to do it. I wish you wouldn’t do it but I know better. He doesn’t deserve us to talk about him one more second,” Altomare said.

“I just can’t get in his head. I can’t do it. I wish I could today,” he added.